Reigning Bermuda Open champion Dwayne Pearman shot a final round of three-under-par 69 to finish in a tie for second place with Britain's Mark Stokes at last week's SATA International Pro-Am in the Azores.

Canadian pro Craig Marseilles, a regular visitor to Bermuda, won the three-day event after carding an opening round of even-par 72 and following that up with successive rounds of two-over-par 74 for a winning total of 220 - three shots ahead of Pearman and Stokes who both finished on 223.

Marseilles placed seventh at last year's Bermuda Open at Port Royal.

Accompanying Pearman to the Azores were fellow local pros Derrick Douglas and Kevin Benevides who placed ninth and 20th respectively in a field which was drastically reduced as a result of escalating fears of an outbreak of war in Iraq.

"I started off bad," said Pearman, winner of the international Pro-Am event in 2000, alluding to a disastrous opening round which saw him card 83.

"During the practice rounds I was playing from the back tees. I figured that the pros were playing from the back tees and the amateurs would be up front.

"But on the day of the tournament they placed the tees further up front and I think that messed me up because I was focused on playing from the back."

Forced to make a few quick alterations to his game plan, Pearman said the adverse weather conditions didn't help his cause.

"It was a bit rainy and windy on the first day," recalled Pearman.

"From the first tee I hit two balls out of bounds and then I had two double bogeys. But I did manage to hit the ball fairly well after that."

Despite suffering a rocky start, Pearman was able to claw his way back into contention and mount a strong challenge for the championship with a second round of 71.

"I knew that it couldn't get any worse and that it would only get better," he said. "So I was very pleased to bounce back with two good scores. Those things happen. I didn't expect to shoot that high but that's golf."

In the two-ball best-ball Pro-Am team event, the local team of Douglas, Cleveland Smith, William Medeiros and John Pereira finished sixth with a total of 427 points, while Pearman's team of Kenneth Bean, Bryan Simmons and Quinton Sherlock finished two places back in eighth on 430 points.

The Canadian team of Marseilles, Luis Amaro, Severio Riverso and John Torres won the event after finishing with 405 points in an international field comprised of 21 teams.